Volcanological and petrological evolution of Marsili Seamount (southern Tyrrhenian Sea)

A swath bathymetric survey was conducted on Marsili Volcano, the biggest seamount in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It stands 3000 m above the surrounding oceanic crust of the 3500 m-deep Marsili back-arc basin and is axially located within the basin. The seamount has an elongated shape and presents distinctive morphology, with narrow (<1000 m) ridges, made up of several elongated cones, on the summit zone and extensive cone fields on its lower flanks. A dredging campaign carried out at water depths varying between 3400 and 600 m indicates that most of Marsili Seamount is composed of medium-K calc-alkaline basalts. Evolved high-K andesites were only recovered from the small cones on the summit axis zone. Petrological and geochemical characteristics of the least differentiated basalts reveal that at least two varieties of magmas have been erupted on the Marsili Volcano. Group 1 basalts have plagioclase and olivine as dominant phases and show lower Al, Ca, K, Ba, Rb and Sr, and higher Fe, Na, Ti and Zr with respect to a second type of basaltic magma. Group 2 basalts reveal the presence of clinopyroxene as an additional phenocryst phase. In addition, the two basaltic magmas have different original pre-eruptive H₂O content (group 1, H₂O-poor and group 2, H₂O-rich). Moreover, comparison of the compositional trends and mineralogical compositions obtained from MELTS [Ghiorso, M.S., Sack, R.O., Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 119 (1995) 197–212] fractional crystallization calculations reveal that the evolved andesites can only exclusively be derived from a low-pressure (0.3 kbar) fractionation of magmas compositionally similar to the least evolved group 2 basalts. Finally, we suggest that the high vesicularity of the basalts sampled at relatively great depths (>2400 m) on the edifice is governed by H₂O and, probably, CO₂ exsolution and is not a feature indicative of shallow water depth eruption.     

Pockmarks and seafloor instability in the Olbia continental slope (northeastern Sardinian margin, Tyrrhenian Sea)

The seafloor morphology and the subsurface of the continental slope of the Olbia intraslope basin located along the eastern, passive Sardinian margin (Tyrrhenian Sea) has been mapped through the interpretation of high-resolution multibeam bathymetric data, coupled with air-gun and sparker seismic profiles. Two areas, corresponding to different physiographic domains, have been recognized along the Olbia continental slope. The upper slope domain, extending from 500 to 850 m water depth, exhibits a series of conical depressions, interpreted as pockmarks that are particularly frequent in seafloor sectors coincident with buried slope channels. In one case, they are aligned along a linear gully most likely reflecting the course of one of the abandoned channels. The location of the pockmarks thus highlights the importance of the distribution of lithologies within different sedimentary bodies in the subsurface in controlling fluid migration plumbing systems. A linear train of pockmarks is, however, present also away from the buried channels being related to a basement step, linked to a blind fault. Two bathymetric highs, interpreted as possible carbonate mounds, are found in connection with some of the pockmark fields. Although the genetic linkage of the carbonate mounds with seafloor fluid venting cannot be definitively substantiated by the lack of in situ measurements, the possibility of a close relationship is here proposed. The lower slope domain, from 850 m down to the base of the slope at 1,200 m water depth is characterized by a sudden gradient increase (from 2° to 6°) that is driven by the presence of the basin master fault that separates the continental slope from the basin plain. Here, a series of km-wide headwall scars due to mass wasting processes are evident. The landslides are characterized by rotated, relatively undeformed seismic strata, which sometimes evolve upslope into shallow-seated (less than 10 m), smaller scale failures and into headless chutes. Slope gradient may act as a major controlling factor on the seafloor instability along the Olbia continental slope; however, the association of landslides with pockmarks has been recognized in several continental slopes worldwide, thus the role of over-pressured fluids in triggering sediment failure in the Olbia slope can not be discarded. In the absence of direct ground truthing, the geological processes linked to subsurface structures and their seafloor expressions have been inferred through the comparison with similar settings where the interpretation of seafloor features from multibeam data has been substantiated with seafloor sampling and geochemical data.     

埃格迪前陆逆冲带顶部盆地的形成和反转构造（西西里海峡西北）

已经认识到，沿西西里和意大利半岛的亚平宁-马格里布褶皱冲断带顶部发育伸展盆地。这些盆地主要形成于上第四纪，推测与伊特鲁里亚弧后盆地的打开有关，这时逆冲前锋部位存在挤压活动。在其沉积下陷内部存在挤压构造。为确定构造类型，对这些盆地中的位于埃格迪岛西南的INVO-2盆地使用密级多道反射剖面测网勘测。INVO-2盆地沿一系列西北-东南向的伸展断层构成，并被地貌高分成两个次级盆地。半地堑极性反转沿两个次级盆地的轴向发育。发育在盆地凹陷内的挤压构造，倾向既有垂直又有平行于盆地轴向的，在一些情况中，这些构造与早期伸展地层的再活动有关。虽然因缺乏井资料不能准确确定挤压期，从盆地的开始到现在，看来挤压是间歇性地发生并夹在以伸展状态为主中。在张性环境中压缩脉冲的起因，我们可以在其毗邻的马格里布碰撞带的动力学中找出答案。     

Mass-transport complex evolution in a tectonically active margin (Gioia Basin,Southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea)

Along the southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea margin, the Gioia Basin formed as a result of extensional tectonics at the rear of the Maghrebian thrust belt. In the central part of the basin, mass-transport deposits represent up to 80% of its recent infill. The basin-wide Nicotera slump is the deepest mass-transport deposit present in the basin and was followed by sheet turbidite deposition. Above the turbidite package, a mass-transport complex (MTC) formed through the stacking of different mass-transport deposits due to repeated failures of the continental slope and of a base of slope channel levee wedge, which is still preserved in the western side of the basin. The Villafranca frontally-confined slide, a body mainly consisting of coherent blocks, represents the bulk of the MTC. The failure of the Villafranca slide was due to asymmetric loading of a permeable condensed horizon in the thinnest, distal lateral part of the channel levee wedge. The relatively large thickness of the Villafranca slide caused it to remain confined at its toe region. Smaller scale mass-transport deposits, a debris-flow sheet and a debris-flow lobe, followed the Villafranca slide and were sourced from the same headwall area. Their different run out and internal character are possibly a function of the lithology of the material involved in the collapse. A slab slide, characterized by little internal deformation and frontal contractional ridges, originated when seafloor instability propagated towards the north, causing clockwise rotation of a sediment wedge. Along the linear headwall of the slab slide, a localized upslope failure propagation is shown by a small scale re-entrant. The Sicilian margin, along which the Gioia Basin develops, is characterized by strong differential vertical movements due to ongoing extensional tectonics. The effects of both local and regional strong earthquakes are frequently felt in the area. Thus, slope oversteepening and earthquakes are suggested as the more likely causes for the observed repeated events of seafloor failure. In addition, an evolution of the MTC through larger slides controlled by the migration of uplift of the basin bounding submarine ridge, followed by smaller scale failures due to the consequent slope profile modification, is here advanced.     

Detailed Bathymetric Mapping of the Eastern Offshore Slope of Lipari Island (Tyrrhenian Sea): Insight into the Dark Side of an Arc Volcano

A detailed multibeam coverage of the eastern offshore of Lipari Island(Aeolian arc) has permitted its subdivision into two sectors with differentmorphobathymetric features. In the northern one, numerous, large, previouslyundetected rhyolitic lava flows have been identified. In the southern one, aconical pyroclastic and epiclastic edifice built on top of afan-shaped lava field has been discovered. Since some of theseoffshore features have no analogues on land, their recognition has furnishednew information about the volcanic processes that built the eastern portionof Lipari Island. In particular, the finding of a huge volume of offshorerhyolitic lava flows, largely exceeding the amount of this kind of lavas onland, shows that the contribution of rhyolitic products in the building ofthe Lipari apparatus has been up to now underestimated. More generally, thecomparison between the land and the offshore units of Lipari volcanicapparatus indicates that a better investigation of the submarine portions ofvolcanic islands can reveal new, unforeseen aspects and greatly enhance ourknowledge about their evolution.     

Deep water gravity core from the Marsili Basin (Tyrrhenian Sea) records Pleistocenic–Holocenic explosive events and instability of the Aeolian Archipelago, (Italy)

A 4.8 m long gravity core was recovered on a relative topographic high in the northern part of the Marsili Basin (southern Tyrrhenian Sea) at a water depth of 3200 m. The core was taken in order to decipher the sedimentary record of the past volcanic events of the nearby Aeolian arc. A succession of thin (2 cm to 5 cm thick) fine-grained turbidites, mainly of volcaniclastic origin, topped by hemipelagic mud layers and a number of primary tephra layers were recovered by the core. The most prominent turbidite occurs in the lower part of the core at 385 cm. It consists of a 20 cm-thick, thinning-upward, pebble to sand-sized bed.     

Compound and hybrid clinothems of the last lowstand Mid-Adriatic Deep: Processes,depositional environments,controls and implications for stratigraphic analysis of prograding systems

Clinoforms with a range of scales are essential elements of prograding continental margins. Different types of clinoforms develop during margin growth, depending on combined changes in relative sea level, sediment supply and oceanographic processes. In studies of continental margin stratigraphy, trajectories of clinoform ‘rollover’ points are often used as proxies for relative sea-level variation and as predictors of the character of deposits beyond the shelf-break. The analysis of clinoform dynamics and rollover trajectory often suffers from the low resolution of geophysical data, the small scale of outcrops with respect to the dimensions of clinoform packages and low chronostratigraphic resolution. Here, through high-resolution seismic reflection data and sediment cores, we show how compound clinoforms were the most common architectural style of margin progradation of the late Pleistocene lowstand in the Adriatic Sea. During compound clinoform development, the shoreline was located landward of the shelf-break. It comprised a wave-dominated delta to the west and a barrier and back-barrier depositional system in the central and eastern area. Storm-enhanced hyperpycnal flows were responsible for the deposition of a sandy lobe in the river mouth, whereas a heterolithic succession formed elsewhere on the shelf. The storm-enhanced hyperpycnal flows built an apron of sand on the slope that interrupted an otherwise homogeneous progradational mudbelt. Locally, the late lowstand compound clinoforms have a flat to falling shelf-break trajectory. However, the main phase of shelf-break bypass and basin deposition coincides with a younger steeply rising shelf-break trajectory. We interpret divergence from standard models, linking shelf-break trajectory to deep-sea sand deposition, as resulting from a great efficiency of oceanographic processes in reworking sediment in the shelf, and from a high sediment supply. The slope foresets had a large progradational attitude during the late lowstand sea-level rise, showing that oceanographic processes can inhibit coastal systems to reach the shelf-edge. In general, our study suggests that where the shoreline does not coincide with the shelf-break, trajectory analysis can lead to inaccurate reconstruction of the depositional history of a margin.